


Reading the Signs

by achillese



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-28 21:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/679007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achillese/pseuds/achillese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam had to learn sign language in order to babysit a five-year-old deaf child. Michael's new to understanding what sign language is, so Adam demonstrates a few phrases for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reading the Signs

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](http://wintrsoldier.tumblr.com/).

It was Adam’s fourth time babysitting the Mauers’ five year-old son and Michael still didn’t understand why Adam practiced those weird hand movements.

“ _Because_ ,” Adam explained yet again as he was making breakfast, “Charlie’s deaf and he needs to be communicate with sign language.”

“And…sign language is a way of communicating with deaf people?” Michael asked, as if the concept were so utterly foreign it was nearly unthinkable.

“Yeah. They can’t talk, so this is a way for them to interact with others. I’ve been practicing every day and I think I can hold up a pretty good conversation so far. Simple, but he’s five so it won’t really matter if I don’t know everything.”

Michael watched from his seat at the kitchen table as Adam moved around, grabbing eggs out of the refrigerator and a bowl from the cabinet. He waited while Adam started making his scrambled eggs before asking, “What kinds of phrases do you know?”

Adam shrugged without looking up. “I dunno. Stuff like…”

He paused before turning to face Michael, who watched the series of rapid hand movements with an unblinking eye. “And what does that mean?”

Adam smirked before turning back to the eggs. “You’ll have to find out.”

—

One evening, Charlie Mauer’s parents asked if it was okay to bring Charlie to Adam’s apartment, as they were having a long dinner party and didn’t want Charlie to feel overwhelmed with all the people there. Upon meeting the small brunette child, Michael cocked his head to the side before mumbling to Adam, who sat on the couch, “I could give him his auditory abilities back, you know.”

Adam snorted. “And how would you like me to explain that to his parents? ‘My boyfriend’s an archangel, it’s no big deal. He just zapped your son’s hearing in tact, free of charge.’”

Charlie, meanwhile, was staring up at Michael wide-eyed, not in fear but in curiosity. He was admittedly imposing, with his dark hair and eyes and broad shoulders, but he wasn’t terrifying. At least, Charlie didn’t think so when he signed, ‘You’re really tall’ to him. Michael furrowed his eyebrows at the small child and looked to Adam for a translation.

Adam chuckled. “He said you’re really tall.”

“How do you say ‘thank you’ in sign language?”

Adam stood up from the couch and showed Michael, first at regular speed, then slower so he could pick up on it easier. Finally, Michael signed it perfectly back to Charlie, who grinned toothily before wandering off to the bag his mother had left behind, full of his favorite toys and games. Adam walked over to help him pick something out when Michael said, “You still didn’t tell me what that first thing meant.”

“You’re still gonna have to find out,” Adam teased in a singsong voice as he sat on the floor with Charlie.

—

Admittedly when Michael found out what it meant, it wasn’t a deep, revealing, heart-touching thing like he’d been expecting. He’d memorized the hand signals the first time Adam showed him but he hadn’t been able to find a tutorial online with those exact movements, considering he suspected one of the words was slang. 

Eventually he’d asked Gabriel for help, who’d nearly wet himself with laughter over his older brother’s crisis over a simple phrase in sign language. Apparently stumping the Sword of Heaven was a sort of comic relief for the other archangel.

And luckily for Michael, Gabriel had known what the sign meant.

“Really?” Michael asked Adam the following morning as Adam wandered out of his bedroom, sleepily rubbing one eye while he yawned.

Adam ran a hand through his hair and went to the cabinet to grab cereal. “Really what? ‘S too early for riddles, Mike.”

“That phrase you signed to me a week ago.”

“What about it?”

“‘Your ass looks cute in those jeans’?”

Adam had to hold onto the kitchen counter to stop himself from collapsing with laughter.


End file.
